Caroline: Day Two

Tuesday November 29th, 2011. Day Two.

This is damn hard. And I'm not talking about the fact that we're all playing 86 characters total, or that we have eighteen days to pull together a show, or that we, the same people playing 86 characters, are also the entire production team. No no, all of that is a walk in the park compared to the onslaught of emotions the subject matter of The Laramie Project evokes.

Everybody knows this show is sad. Hate crime is sparsely chosen for the center of a theatre piece because it has qualities that are uniquely terrible. Hate crime exposes the weakest links in a community, and the broad range of opinions in a community that is, on the surface, unified. Not only does Hate Crime target and physically harm people for their race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, or any other quality one might deem 'hateable', but it destroys the community around them as well. Hate Crime is a specific form of tragedy, that is never limited to the section of people antagonists might choose to hate.

Realizing the gravity of a Hate Crime is a pretty terrible experience. Not only have we as a class been realizing the shock and terror of a horrific murder, but we've been realizing the way a sense of security is ripped from a town in the aftermath of such an incident. We're realizing that it's hard to ever say you truly know someone. And I'm realizing it's a hell of a lot easier to turn the other cheek in a situation like this. To just change the channel and the subject when something like this flashes on the Nine o Clock news. Now in this situation, although a part of me (and believe me everyone has this urge, if they say any different they're bold liars) wants to turn the other cheek, I can't. And I am so, so grateful that I can't turn the other cheek. I'm being forced to deal with terrifying situations and play characters who I hate, and I am so grateful that I get to do this. I get to sympathize with these people in Laramie in a way that I would never be able to unless (god forbid) something like this happened around here, and that is a blessing in disguise. So day two, I'm grateful. And scared. Mostly grateful though.